What is an American

Related Articles

What happened to the spiritual leadership in America? It ended because we lost connection with the root purpose and identity that caused the very birth of America. Leadership is based on purpose and purpose is based on identity. America has lost touch with her identity and her purpose.

Ask yourself, “What is America?” Ask yourself, “What is an American?” What are the common characteristics of all Americans? Ask any ten people any of these questions and you will likely get ten very different answers. Ask any ten national political celebrities any of these questions and you will likely get ten very different answers, as well. America has become defined by whatever definition best supports whatever political agenda is being promoted at any given moment. We have lost connection with the foundational purpose and identity that conceived us as a nation and because of that there is nothing from which a leader can chart a successful course, spiritually or otherwise. So how did we lose this connection? And, what was our founding identity? If we can discover the answer to these two questions, we will not only know “What happened to the spiritual leadership in our country?”, but we will learn a great deal toward recovering the spiritual leadership so desperately needed in America.

To discover, or rediscover what our founding identity was we need to explore what formed the identity. Identity is formed out of values and a system of deeply held beliefs. What were the values that formed the identity of America? Let’s look. But before we look, let’s ask ourselves one question. Can we be intellectually honest about what we uncover and discover? Or will we do what today’s celebrity leaders in politics, business and media do; which is to distort the past to validate their pet cause. One is either seeking truth or seeking validation. I invite you here to seek truth as we are exploring “Spiritual Leadership”.

We know that before America was launched through the delivery of the “Declaration of Independence”, we were defined as a colony of England. At varying degrees many colonists grew resentful of the overbearing policies of the crown. Simultaneously, being so far away geographically, the notion of independence sparked, lit, and stayed lit. However the intellectual struggle between servant hood and sovereignty is really a measure of military advantage. Therefore the identity of servant for the colonists was set, because the mightiest military on the planet at the time was the one that served King George the third, King of England, who owned the colony and the colonists. There was only one influence that could trump the influence of raw fear based on lethal consequences from opposition. That influence is “Divine Influence”, as was almost immediately referenced in the “Declaration of Independence”. Divine Influence is the primary DNA code of Spiritual Leadership in this country. It is intrinsically part of every value that makes up our identity because it is the very authority behind our identity. Every step away from acknowledgement of this reality erodes the very basis for America.

Why: because only Divine Influence gave us human authority autonomy. No longer were other humans able to position themselves as superior to another human being. We were equal creations of a Creator. The Creator equalized us all. Applying this idea to government immediately made the crown, royalty, and human dominion of no effect to Americans. The Creator endowed us to be equally sovereign among each other. Individual sovereignty was the first brick in America’s identity foundation and it was a radical new way of thinking. It was also exclusively American. No people or government on the planet had identified with this level of liberty in the history of man. It was revolutionary and for much of the planet still is. America meant freedom because America agreed with the Creator that man is sanctioned by the Creator to be free to pursue happiness. Take the Creator out of this equation and the equation loses its potency and ability to inspire character, courage, and vision, the primary characteristics of a leader.

It is impossible to not see that this is certainly what has happened. America, the real America, the original America will forever be symbiotically connected and dependent on a connection to the Creator that conceived her. The question that beckons is will we as a people find our way back to our source of strength and wisdom?